La Femme Nikita: Steelbook – Sony Pictures (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: France/Italy, 1990
Director: Luc Besson
Writer: Luc Besson
Cast: Anne Parillaud, Marc Duret, Tchéky Karyo, Jeanne Moreau, Philippe Leroy, Jean Reno

Release Date: June 11th, 2024
Approximate Running Time: 117 Minutes 18 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 French, DTS-HD Stereo French, DTS-HD 5.1 English
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $45.99

"Convicted felon Nikita (Anne Parillaud), instead of going to jail, is given a new identity and trained to be a secret police assassin controlled by the government. Her lonely life is warmed when she falls in love with a man who knows nothing of her mysterious life." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

La Femme Nikita comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 59.1 GB

Feature: 58.4 GB

The source looks exceptional; this is easily the best La Femme Nikita has ever looked on home media. Flesh tones look correct, colors look appropriately vivid, image clarity, contrast, shadow detail, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 4.5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 French), 4.25/5 (DTS-HD Stereo French), 4/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 English)

This release comes with three audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in French, a DTS-HD stereo mix in French, and a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English. All of the audio tracks sound clean, clear, balanced, and robust when they should. The most dynamic of these three audio tracks is the DTS-HD 5.1 French-language track. Included are removable English subtitles for the French language track and removable English SDH and removable Spanish subtitles for the English language track.

Extras:

There is no extra content.

Summary:

After breaking into the drug store that one of their accomplices' fathers owns, Nikita and her friends are searching for their next fix. Things quickly spiral out of control when the police show up and a shootout ensues. When the smoke clears, Nikita, the only survivor, seals her own fate by killing a policeman. A government agent approaches Nikita, who is now imprisoned, with an offer for a second chance if she agrees to work as a government assassin.

Though there have been other films about female assassins that predate La Femme Nikita, no film before or since Nikita has come close to replicating a female assassin as compelling and enigmatic as Nikita. As we look at her for the first time in the drug store, very little is revealed about who she is or where she has been before this moment. As the narrative evolves, she keeps her backstory a tightly held secret, never fully revealing it. When her mentor Bob discusses her past, he shares childhood memories with Nikita and her lover Marco; they are fictitious stories made up by Bob. And when the moment arrives where Nikita makes her exit at the end of the film, she is just as mysterious of a character as she was when the film began.

In many ways, Nikita is an empty shell when we first see her. Over the course of the narrative, she starts to reveal some of her more human side when the pressure gets to her and she breaks down. One moment that immediately springs to mind is a scene when she tries to escape from the ministry, her new home. In her desperate attempt for freedom, she takes Bob’s gun and uses him as a hostage. She makes it as far as the door before she realizes that escape is not possible. She then turns the gun on herself, wanting to end her life. Bob then grabs the gun from her before she’s able to get off a shot. A scene where a character named Victor, a cleaner, is called in when a mission goes wrong for Nikita becomes a key turning point for Nikita. Sitting in the corner, whining, Nikita is ready to call the mission off. Victor eventually gets fed up with her overflow of emotions and lets her know that they are going to see the mission through to the very end, even if it means an almost certain death.

After working with cinematographer Carlo Varini on his previous three films, La Femme Nikita would mark director Luc Besson's first collaboration with cinematographer Thierry Arbogast, who has worked on almost every film that Luc Besson has directed since. His notable credits include The Apartment (L’appartement), Woman on Top, Kiss of the Dragon, and Femme Fatale. Visually, La Femme Nikita frames characters and objects in compositions in a very stylish way. four action sequences—the drugstore, the restaurant murder, the apartment killing of a diplomat, and the bloodbath at an embassy—are all spectacular set pieces that beautifully contrast with the more human elements of the story. La Femme Nikita features another exemplary score from Eric Serra that blends in with what is going on and never becomes overpowering or distracting to the point of drawing attention to itself.

For a film that excels in every way, there would be no Nikita without Anne Parillaud, who gives a vulnerable and believable performance in the role of Nikita. Even with the lack of backstory for Nikita, she does a remarkable job bringing the character to life and making Nikita all the more tangible. Some of her strongest moments include a scene where she first meets Bob after her apparent death in prison and asks him, “Mister, is this heaven here or not?” to which he replies, "No, but it could turn out to be." Other key moments for the Nikita character include a scene where Bob brings her a birthday cake and lets her know they only have two weeks for her to make a complete turnaround or she is through; a scene where she assaults her martial arts teacher and then breaks out into dance; and the scene where she meets Marco for the very first time, all of which are crucial to her development as a character.

Any character stealing the spotlight from Nikita, even if only for one moment, is hard to imagine. And yet this happens after the arrival of Victor the cleaner, who actually only has two scenes. These scenes also happen to be two of the most powerful in La Femme Nikita, as they reveal that Nikita has not lost her humanity, while Victor, in direct contrast, has, as he is nothing more than dead inside. Jean Reno delivers a brilliant performance as Victor the cleaner, and Luc Besson cast him in a similar role four years later in Leon, which he wrote and directed.

Tchky Karyo and Jean-Hugues Anglade portray the two men in Nikita’s life. Tchéky Karyo in the role of Nikita’s mentor, Bob, is an exceptional example of a subtle performance that is as rich and complex as possible without ever losing any of the mystery of the character. Though he has been assigned to Nikita and transforms her into a cold-blooded killer, one can clearly see that he views her as so much more. His emotional attachment to and bond with her are in direct contrast with the persona he projects. In many ways, Nikita teaches him as much as he teaches her in return. Another performance of note is Jean-Hugues Anglade, who portrays Marco, the man who Nikita falls in love with. Also look out for Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim) and Philippe Leroy (The Frightened Woman) in minor secondary roles.

It would not take long for La Femme Nikita to find an audience, and its worldwide box office appeal would spawn an American remake titled Point of No Return. A few years after the American remake, there would be a TV series based on the character. All of the characters are equally fascinating and dysfunctional. Ultimately, La Femme Nikita’s lyrical dialog and scenarios elevate what could have, in lesser hands, been typical action fodder, making it something more significant.

Sony Pictures gives La Femme Nikita a solid audio/video presentation, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer